Head Of Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Suggests Joint US-Russia Mission To Mars

Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, has pitched a US-Russia partnership for Mars exploration to Elon Musk. Dmitriev has taken on the role of chief economic envoy in the US-Russia talks.

Dmitriev’s remarks came in response to Musk’s announcement of a planned 2026 Mars mission. The SpaceX founder stated that the company’s Starship spacecraft is set to depart for Mars next year and will be carrying a Tesla humanoid bot called Optimus. Musk also suggested that human landings on Mars could begin as early as 2029.

Dmitriev wrote on X “Shall 2029 be the year of a joint US-Russia mission to Mars, @elonmusk? Our minds & technology should serve the glory of humanity, not its destruction.”

He also noted that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first crewed international space mission carried out jointly by then-spaceflight rivals, the US and the Soviet Union, in July 1975. Musk has not yet publicly responded to Dmitriev’s proposal, which comes amid a thaw in relations between Moscow and Washington following years of tensions over the Ukraine conflict. Dmitriev was part of the Russian delegation at the high-level US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia last month, which marked the first direct diplomatic contact between the two states since 2022. The meeting ended with both sides signalling a readiness to restart economic and diplomatic cooperation and join forces in resolving the Ukraine conflict.

Despite the conflict and Western sanctions imposed on Moscow, space cooperation between the US and Russia has not been severed. For instance, NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos recently extended their agreement on cross-flights to the International Space Station through 2026.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that domestic companies should collaborate with Musk once the billionaire shifts his focus back to science from US government reform.